2023-05-02 17:12:19
“Here, we were forgotten for two years. Maintenance agent at the national theater of La Criée, CGT union delegate and suffering from lung cancer due to asbestos, Tony Moulon made these remarks during a meeting with the city of Marseille, a little more than a year before his death in November 2010, at the age of 52. They summarize the content of the debates this Tuesday before the Marseille Criminal Court, where the trial is being held in the asbestos case within the theater brought to light in 2008. And which reveals “a frontal opposition”, as described by the president of the court Pascal Gand, between the city of Marseille, owner of the premises, and the teams of this theater built in the old fish market on the Old Port, opened to the public in 1981. Two of its employees died of lung cancer and a third developed an occupational disease linked, according to medical expertise, to his exposure to asbestos dust.
At the helm, black suit and salt and pepper hair, Robert Martin is the only defendant. He is appearing in particular for manslaughter for deliberate breach of an obligation of safety and prudence. At the material time, he had not yet retired and managed the southern real estate assets of the city of Marseille. That is the maintenance and security of some 500 buildings, schools, nurseries and other spaces in the city open to the public. To carry out this mission, he leads a team of around fifty people. “This period of 2003-2006 that I am accused of is completely beyond my control and the city of Marseille bears the responsibility”, he defends himself, pointing to the annual budget of 90,000 euros allocated by the city to establish the asbestos diagnostics, as required by regulations. A budget that allows to diagnose only thirty buildings in the year. “Priority for asbestos research was given to nurseries and schools,” explains the engineer.
Everything changes at the end of 2008
At La Criée, however, a diagnosis was made in November 2006, which turned out to be positive. But without anything happening in two years. Robert Martin claims to have transmitted it to his hierarchy as well as to the theater, by simple mail, without being able to provide proof. The theater claims to have never received it. Everything changed during a site meeting, which took place at the end of 2008 for electrical renovation work. The management and employees of the Théâtre de la Criée then discover behind the scenes. Just like the company which intervenes without particular precaution. On that date, the city sent this time to the theater a “summary sheet” of the asbestos diagnosis of 2006. Then director of the Criée, Jean-Louis Benoît seized the subject. A complementary asbestos diagnosis is ordered. Asbestos removal work began in the summer of 2009, particularly in the large hall, which disrupted several seasons.
“We had an immediate and strong reaction from the theater following these exchanges on knowledge of asbestos, why, if you had transmitted these elements in 2006, there would not have been such a reaction? “Asks the president of the court. Robert Martin, as often during the exchanges, answers with another question, reformulated later by his lawyer Me Olivier Grimaldi: “How, for two years, following having seen the passage of a diagnostician, the theater did not not interested in the results? He would have liked to ask the question to the former technical director of the theatre, who during the investigation admitted “ignoring everything regarding the regulations relating to asbestos identification when he took office on September 1, 2006”. But the latter, present as a witness, did not return for health reasons following the hearing was suspended.
“I’m scared every two years”
“I sympathize with the pain of the families, but in this case, with the means at my disposal, I did everything that was able to do in the time allowed,” said Robert Martin, who also points out, to regret, that “the city of Marseille is totally absent from the file, and the theater too”. Two years of inaction is also the duration that now punctuates the life of Didier Bourgeat, former chief machinist of the Criée whose complaint is, with that of Tony Moulon, at the origin of the investigation. In 2009, he passed an asbestos search scanner which proved positive on the bilateral pleural plaques. “I have it on the pleura, as long as it works it’s good, he testifies. I’m scared every two years when I arrive for checks. Evolution, I don’t know how it will happen. »
The hearing is due to resume on Wednesday with the pleadings of the civil parties, then the requisitions. Still, “the Criée theater is not an isolated case”, noted during the proceedings the president of the court. In fact, he continued, “none of the positive asbestos technical diagnoses of the theaters of Marseille, generated from October to November 2006, was transmitted before 2008.” Among these places welcoming the public, there is the Gymnase and the Marseilles Opera.
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